-LRB- Fast Company -RRB- -- Microsoft has dialed up its competition in the search-engine wars with the introduction of a daily deals facility on Bing .

Microsoft knows daily deals are the hottest meme at the moment , so its announcement is suitably cheeky and aggressively street-hawkeresque -LRB- we kid -RRB- : `` Calling all bargain hunters , deal lovers , Groupon groupies and Living Social fanatics ! Things just got easier '' it trumpets , making no bones about mentioning the biggest name in daily deals right now , Groupon , to gin up interest in its service .

Bing Deals arrived Thursday on desktop PCs and smartphones -LRB- where it 's possibly most useful -RRB- via Bing 's dedicated , simpler , mobile site m.bing.com . It promises to give access to `` more than 20,000 unique offers in over 14,000 cities and towns across the U.S. ''

But how has Microsoft managed to amass such a diverse coverage and ad-partnership pool already , you may wonder ?

The answer is that Bing , unlike Google 's more head-on direct competitor efforts , is actually assembling daily deal offers from sites like Groupon , Living Social , Restaurant.com `` to name a few '' into one location , making it easy to work out where you can find a super-cheap purchase , or perhaps a spontaneous birthday gift for someone .

It 's using technology from The Dealmap -LRB- `` a leading source for people to find and share the best local deals '' -RRB- to power its systems , which means as well as location-based deal discovery , you 'll also be able to share results with people via email .

It seems the system is spread throughout Bing , as well -- if you search for a local restaurant using Bing , then the engine will `` make sure you know '' about any deals that establishment may have available by listing them directly beneath the business details in the search window .

The system appears ideal for consumers previously uninterested in deals sites like Groupon -- which may offset the slight brand erosion each of these individual sites may suffer as their deal offers are wrapped into Bing 's front-end UI .

In launching daily deals , Bing is stepping up its competition with Google and jumping aboard the -LRB- already bursting -RRB- daily deals bandwagon .

With new data suggesting total revenues from daily deals services could reach as much as $ 6 billion by 2015 in the U.S. alone , this is a fast-growing market segment that Microsoft simply ca n't ignore .

So how can Microsoft grab a share of this if it 's just gathering together everyone else 's deals ? By selling ads to you when you surf to its pages .

Copyright © 2010 FastCompany.com , a unit of Mansueto Ventures , LLC . All rights reserved .

@highlight

Microsoft introduces daily deals facility on its Bing search engine

@highlight

Ad : `` Calling all bargain hunters , deal lovers , Groupon groupies and Living Social fanatics ''

@highlight

Bing Deals arrived Thursday on desktop PCs and smartphones